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  • Convicted BDF Soldier, Police Officer Move to Appeal Prison Sentences

    Convicted BDF Soldier, Police Officer Move to Appeal Prison Sentences

    Five years after the controversial 2021 fatal shooting of Belize Defense Force (BDF) soldier Jessie Escobar in Santa Familia, two convicted law enforcement officials implicated in a cover-up of the incident have launched a bid to reduce their prison sentences.

    BDF Private Ramon Alberto Alcoser and Police Corporal Juan Carlos Morales appeared before High Court Justice Derick Sylvester on April 15, 2026, where the judge scheduled their full appeal hearing for April 27. Up until the hearing convenes, both men will remain in custody at Belize Central Prison.

    The pair were originally convicted and sentenced last December by a magistrate court, after findings that they deliberately falsified information and omitted critical details from their official statements regarding Escobar’s killing. Their accounts of the shooting were ultimately disproven by independent surveillance footage that directly contradicted their testimony. Under the original sentencing order, Alcoser is currently serving a 14-month prison term, while Morales is serving a 23-month sentence.

    During the April 15 procedural hearing, Morales notified the court that he will be represented by private defense attorney Alifah Elrington for the appeal, while the court has appointed attorney Oscar Selgado to serve as Alcoser’s legal counsel. Notably, Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl-Lynn Vidal will personally lead the prosecution’s argument in the appeal, a move that underscores the high priority and significance the prosecution assigns to this high-profile case.

    The appeal puts the original conviction and sentencing in the hands of the High Court, which will now rule on whether the original prison terms will be upheld, or if the two convicted law enforcement officers will receive a reduction of their sentences. The case has remained a focal point of public attention across Belize since Escobar’s killing in 2021, with observers across the country closely tracking every development in the legal process.

  • Belama Land Dispute Leaves Young Mother Displaced

    Belama Land Dispute Leaves Young Mother Displaced

    Across Belize, land disputes involving undocumented migrants have become an increasingly common source of instability for vulnerable communities. But the story of 24-year-old Dora Enamorado highlights the uniquely devastating human cost of these ongoing conflicts, leaving one young mother and her three children without the only home they have ever known.

    Enamorado’s connection to Belize stretches back to infancy. When she was just a baby, her mother fled escalating violence in El Salvador to seek safety across the border in Belize, building a new life in the community of Belama. Enamorado grew up on Belizean soil, raised her three Belizean-born children here, and spent eight years cultivating and occupying a plot of land that she thought would be her permanent home. That sense of security shattered abruptly when the land was seized from her, leaving her displaced, disenfranchised, and feeling that her decades of belonging in the country have been erased.

    In a statement recorded for Belize’s evening news broadcast, Enamorado explained the bureaucratic chaos and unfair treatment that led to her displacement. She was a participant in community planning meetings for the land redistribution project from its earliest stages, following all official instructions to the letter. The project planned to relocate the existing community to make way for a new development led by politician Francis Fonseca, with 18 households prioritized for new plots, and remaining parcels allocated to other eligible residents after the first round.

    Enamorado had already completed her initial application for a new plot in 2020, with government officials on-site documenting that her home stood on the property, recording her name and lot number in official records. When officials asked her to re-sign the application, she complied, confident her claim would be processed. That is when the first barrier emerged: officials told her she could not receive land because she is not a Belizean citizen. Even after Enamorado pointed out that she has three Belizean-born children, officials accepted her application forms anyway—but never followed up, never issued a receipt, and repeatedly delayed her inquiries by claiming the process was still awaiting a land survey that never concluded.

    Six months after Enamorado and her husband reapplied to move the process forward, an official finally delivered the final blow: the land is now classified as private property, a classification that was never disclosed to her over the four years she fought to secure her claim.

    Enamorado, who has never lived anywhere other than Belize, now finds herself locked out of the home she built, with little recourse to appeal the decision. She shared her story with local journalists in the hope that bringing public attention to her case will force officials to address the injustice she has faced. Her story is one of dozens of similar unresolved disputes in the region, exposing the gaps in policy that leave undocumented migrants and their citizen children vulnerable to displacement in the countries they have always called home.

  • Hurricane Hunters Touch Down for Education, Not Emergency

    Hurricane Hunters Touch Down for Education, Not Emergency

    For most people around the world, the U.S. Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters are only a name tied to breaking emergency weather coverage: when a catastrophic tropical cyclone is barreling toward populated coastlines, these elite pilots and their specially modified aircraft fly straight into the storm’s eye to collect life-saving data that forecasters rely on to track intensity and path. But this week, the Hurricane Hunters are touching down in Belize for an entirely different mission – one centered on education, not disaster response.

  • Dominican Republic and Suriname express concern over Haiti crisis

    Dominican Republic and Suriname express concern over Haiti crisis

    SAINT DOMINGO — During a high-stakes official gathering hosted in the Dominican Republic’s capital, foreign ministers Roberto Álvarez of the Dominican Republic and Melvin Bouva of Suriname have jointly raised urgent alarms over the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian and security crisis unfolding in neighboring Haiti, labeling the Caribbean nation’s spiraling insecurity a critical threat to entire regional stability.

    The two top diplomats made their remarks following closed-door bilateral talks, where the dire situation in Haiti took center stage on the meeting’s agenda. Currently, Haitian armed gangs hold de facto control over roughly 90 percent of Port-au-Prince’s metropolitan area, with their territorial influence continuing to spread outward into additional regions of the already fragile country. This sprawling gang dominance has dragged Haiti into one of the deepest periods of instability in its recent history, leaving basic governance and public safety all but collapsed in large swathes of the nation.

    Against this bleak backdrop, Álvarez and Bouva issued a joint appeal to the global community, calling for scaled-up, coordinated action to deliver a comprehensive, long-lasting resolution to Haiti’s crisis. They underlined two non-negotiable pillars of any effective intervention: upholding fundamental human rights for all Haitian people, and directly confronting the violent criminal networks that have usurped state authority across most of the country. The ministers emphasized that delayed or fragmented action will only exacerbate the crisis, with spillover effects that risk destabilizing neighboring countries and the wider Caribbean region.
    Beyond the discussion of Haiti’s emergency, the meeting also marked a milestone in bilateral relations between the Dominican Republic and Suriname. The two countries signed a formal joint declaration that reaffirms their longstanding close ties, and codifies their shared commitment to core democratic values, the rule of law, and universal human rights.

    In addition to the declaration, the two sides reached a series of agreements to deepen collaboration across multiple priority sectors. These include tourism expansion, educational exchanges, cross-border trade, foreign direct investment, energy development, and collective climate action. The cooperation framework is designed to advance shared goals of sustainable development, strengthen national food security, generate new formal employment opportunities, and create a more favorable environment for private sector growth in both nations.

  • Paliza: government moves to protect cost of living and economy

    Paliza: government moves to protect cost of living and economy

    Amid escalating geopolitical tensions between the United States, Israel, and Iran that have sent ripples through global markets, the Dominican Republic has rolled out a coordinated national strategy to buffer its economy from potential fallout, according to José Ignacio Paliza, the nation’s Minister of the Presidency. The policy framework, finalized after a recent gathering of the Council of Ministers, is built around three core priorities that target both household financial stability and long-term economic resilience.

    The first pillar centers on shielding household cost of living through targeted social support programs, while the second focuses on shoring up domestic production sectors to keep economic activity growing at a steady pace. The third pillar involves a systematic restructuring of public expenditure to guarantee the government has the fiscal capacity to sustain these protective measures over the long term.

    Following the cabinet meeting, Paliza emphasized the critical role of cross-party dialogue and national unity during a discussion hosted by the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (Funglode) that included former Dominican president Leonel Fernández and senior members of the opposition People’s Force party. Fernández aligned with the government’s position, stressing that protecting democratic governance and maintaining internal social cohesion requires broad consensus across the political spectrum.

    Officials have expressed confidence in the country’s ability to absorb external economic shocks, pointing to a robust set of macroeconomic fundamentals that have been built up in recent years. As of the latest updates, the nation holds nearly US$16 billion in international reserves, maintains healthy liquidity across its financial system, and retains reliable access to global financing markets. The government also proactively locked in long-term energy supply contracts before the Middle East crisis escalated, and successfully issued 2026 public debt instruments at favorable borrowing terms ahead of the recent market volatility.

    To directly ease pressure on ordinary citizens, Dominican authorities have already allocated more than 8 billion Dominican pesos (RD$) to fuel subsidies over a five-week period. This intervention has capped domestic fuel prices, limiting the domestic impact of skyrocketing global crude oil costs triggered by the regional conflict. In a separate move to support the agricultural sector, the government has rolled out a RD$1 billion subsidy for fertilizer inputs, which has offset rising production costs for farmers and prevented sharp spikes in prices for staple food goods across the country.

  • Doorbraak in gronddossier Mariënburg: uitvoering eindelijk in zicht

    Doorbraak in gronddossier Mariënburg: uitvoering eindelijk in zicht

    A new round of high-level talks has been launched in Suriname to finally deliver a structural, long-term solution to the long-running land rights crisis that has left hundreds of Mariënburg residents without formal legal ownership of their properties for decades.
    The meeting, held April 15, brought together Stanley Soeropawiro, Minister of Land and Forest Management, his senior staff, Bronto Somohardjo, chair of the Permanent Committee on Land Affairs of the National Assembly, and Carlo Jadnanansing, liquidator of Surinaamse Cultuur Maatschappij B.V. and a former notary. The core focus of the discussion was crafting a tangible resolution for local residents who have never held official land titles for their plots, a gap that has left them without basic legal security for their homes and property.
    Under the newly proposed roadmap, the first phase of the resolution process will see eligible residents issued a statement of willingness (bereidverklaring, BV), which will be followed by formal land lease allocation. Officials say this step-by-step process is designed to eventually deliver full, legally binding land rights security for affected residents.
    Talks are set to resume next week, with full implementation of the plan scheduled to begin by the end of May, following Jadnanansing’s return from travel.
    Somohardjo emphasized that the Mariënburg land crisis has dragged on for years, with residents repeatedly forced to advocate for action from authorities. As recently as April 2025, residents publicly raised alarms over their ongoing lack of legal land security, prompting officials to promise a new round of solutions. Just one month later, in May 2025, authorities announced the problem had been resolved and distributed documents to residents claiming to resolve the issue.
    “But let’s be honest: to this day, nothing has been solved. People were once again fooled with a worthless piece of paper,” Somohardjo said in blunt remarks following the new talks. He acknowledged that years of broken promises have eroded public trust, saying “I completely understand the frustration of the people. For many, faith that a real solution will ever come has all but disappeared. That is exactly why we want to show that things can be different: no more empty promises, no more meaningless paperwork, just a permanent, lasting solution that actually works.”

  • ABLP Leader Browne Urges Support for Kiz Johnson during energetic campaign BLITZ

    ABLP Leader Browne Urges Support for Kiz Johnson during energetic campaign BLITZ

    Against a backdrop of thumping dancehall rhythms, soaring chants, and a flood of red campaign flags, a boisterous crowd packed a campaign rally in Antigua and Barbuda’s St. Philip’s South constituency, where Prime Minister Gaston Browne took the stage to galvanize support for Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) candidate Kiz Johnson ahead of the April 30 general election.\n\nThousands of enthusiastic supporters filled the venue, waving party banners in unison, holding up coordinated hand signals, and chanting Johnson’s name in a rhythmic call-and-response that merged political party slogans with local musical energy. The charged atmosphere set the stage for Browne’s core framing of the upcoming vote as a critical step to cement the country’s ongoing national transformation.\n\nBrowne positioned the 2024 general election as an opportunity to continue what he has called Antigua and Barbuda’s national “renaissance” — an era of expanded public investment and inclusive progress across core sectors that touch everyday residents. “This is the renaissance, a new era of progress and development,” he told the fired-up crowd, pointing to transformative policy gains his administration has delivered in education, public healthcare, and affordable housing over its term.\n\nHe spotlighted expanded access to tertiary education as one of the sitting government’s landmark achievements, announcing that for the first time, Antiguans and Barbudans will be able to complete law degrees entirely within the country starting this September. Previously, aspiring legal professionals were forced to travel abroad to Europe and other international destinations, paying tens of thousands of dollars in tuition and living costs to earn their credentials. That barrier will be removed when the program launches at the Five Islands campus, he confirmed.\n\nBeyond education, Browne touted the ABLP administration’s widespread housing construction and social support initiatives, emphasizing that no previous governing body in the country’s history has delivered more tangible gains to boost working- and middle-class living standards. “We will improve your living standards,” he reiterated, emphasizing the government’s continued commitment to expanding these programs if re-elected.\n\nTurning to the party’s candidate, Browne made boosting female representation in parliament a core appeal of Johnson’s campaign, arguing that the national legislature needs more diverse, female leadership to properly represent all constituents. “Let’s send another competent female to Parliament, who can represent you, who can defend you,” he urged the crowd, framing Johnson’s candidacy as a step forward for inclusive governance.\n\nBrowne described Johnson as a deeply connected local leader, calling her a product of the St. Philip’s South community that she is seeking to represent. “She is someone you nurtured, someone who is dedicated to your empowerment,” he said, highlighting her grassroots roots as a key strength that sets her apart from other candidates.\n\nWhen Johnson took the stage to address supporters, she matched the crowd’s high energy, delivering a focused promise of responsive, effective governance if elected on April 30. “I am ready to serve the people — effective representation, proper representation,” she declared, as the crowd erupted in cheers and chants of victory ahead of polling day.\n\nClosing out the rally, Browne extended an appeal to voters across all partisan lines, emphasizing the ABLP’s commitment to inclusive governance and urging every resident of the constituency to throw their support behind Johnson regardless of their past political affiliation. “It doesn’t matter your political persuasion, I am calling on each of you to support Kiz Johnson,” he said.\n\nThe high-energy rally marks a key stop in the ABLP’s island-wide campaign to consolidate voter support ahead of the upcoming general election, with St. Philip’s South widely identified as a competitive key battleground constituency that will play a major role in determining the outcome of the national vote.

  • Uncle remembers ‘quiet’ young man after fatal shooting

    Uncle remembers ‘quiet’ young man after fatal shooting

    A quiet Caribbean community in Barbados is reeling from senseless violence after a 26-year-old University of the West Indies law student was killed in a late-night drive-by shooting Tuesday, leaving his grieving family struggling to process their sudden, devastating loss. Daquan Roberts, a third-year law student who lived with his two uncles in Christ Church while his mother resided overseas, was caught in the barrage of gunfire on Spruce Street in Bridgetown, The City, during a family gathering to mark his grandmother’s 63rd birthday.

    Speaking exclusively to local media Barbados TODAY on Wednesday, Anthony Ifill, Roberts’ great-uncle, said the entire family remained paralyzed by shock just 12 hours after the attack. Still visibly shaken by the trauma of the previous night’s events, Ifill described his great-nephew as a reserved, focused young man who dedicated most of his time to his legal studies and rarely went out socializing. “He was quiet and he didn’t go anywhere. He was studying law in school,” Ifill said, calling the young student’s untimely death “unfortunate.”

    The shooting unfolded just after 10:50 p.m., when Roberts and dozens of his relatives had gathered outside the family home on Church Hill Road, Gall Hill, Christ Church, to celebrate the birthday milestone. According to preliminary law enforcement accounts, a white motor van approached the gathering from the direction of Beckwith Street, before unidentified assailants inside opened fire on the crowd in a clear drive-by attack. “It actually was a drive-by, right, it’s a drive-by,” Ifill confirmed in an interview, recalling the moment chaos erupted. “When I hear the shots, I actually run, I fall over the table.”

    In the immediate panic of the attack, Roberts and his father attempted to flee to safety down a narrow gap near the home. It was only during the escape that Roberts’ father realized his son had been struck by gunfire, Ifill explained. “He and his ran… straight down the gap. But then when the father realised that he had been shot, he started screaming out,” Ifill said. “He ran from here to the end of the gap… and then he fell.”

    Roberts was rushed by private car to the island’s main Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where medical staff were unable to save him, and he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival from his gunshot injuries. On Wednesday, when Barbados TODAY reached out to Dr Ronnie Yearwood, deputy head of the Faculty of Law at UWI Cave Hill, the senior academic was too distraught over the loss of one of his students to comment on the incident.

    Barbadian law enforcement officials have confirmed that this shooting marks the 19th fatal shooting recorded on the island since the start of the calendar year. Investigators from the local police force have launched a full probe into the attack, and are continuing to canvass for witnesses and review evidence as they work to identify and apprehend the perpetrators behind the killing.

  • Blue Marlins, a force in regional swimming

    Blue Marlins, a force in regional swimming

    Between April 9 and 12, the 26th annual Rodney Heights Aquatic Centre Invitational Swim Meet brought together dozens of competitive swimming teams from across the region to St. Lucia, and the Blue Marlins Swim Club emerged as one of the event’s most surprising standout performers.

    Fielding a compact 12-member delegation split across six age divisions, Blue Marlins entered the meet as representatives of both their club and home nation, with every swimmer bringing their full effort to every race they competed in. The team’s roster spanned every competitive age group from youth through adult: Rui Gordon, Jayce Thomas and Raya Adams competed in the 8-and-under division; Xyon Sealey-Nicholls and Saige Jobe represented the club in the 9-10 age group; Zoey May, Skylar Byron, Taj Henry and Saj Caesar made up the 11-12 contingent; Belle Adams competed as the sole Blue Marlin in the 13-14 girls’ division; Tayeah St. Hilaire raced in the 15-17 division; and Jod Baker represented the 18-and-over boys’ category.

    Against a stacked field of more than 30 competing teams, Blue Marlins’ small but skilled squad defied expectations to secure a fifth-place overall finish. Compounding the challenge of their small roster size, the team was only able to field one entry for the meet’s relay sessions — events that award double points to finishing teams — but the high-caliber performance of individual swimmers more than made up for the limited relay opportunities.

    Two Blue Marlins swimmers claimed top honors as high-point champions of their respective age groups: Belle Adams took home the first-place trophy for girls 13-14, while Tayeah St. Hilaire claimed the same title for girls 15-17. St. Hilaire also made meet history, breaking the existing RHAC record for the girls 15-17 50m backstroke with a blistering time of 33.22 seconds.

    Other standout individual results include Jod Baker’s second-place overall finish for boys 18 and over, Skylar Byron’s third-place individual trophy for girls 11-12, and Jayce Thomas’s third-place finish for boys 8 and under. By the close of the meet, the entire Blue Marlins squad amassed a total of 40 medals: 17 gold, 10 silver, and 13 bronze.

    Seven Blue Marlins swimmers — Thomas, May, Byron, St. Hilaire, Baker, and both Belle and Raya Adams — qualified for the meet’s sprint challenge, but the team was forced to forfeit their spots in the extra event due to timing conflicts with their scheduled departing flight. Meet organizers and observers widely agreed that the team would have turned in strong performances had they been able to compete.

    In competitive swimming, a swimmer’s growth is most often measured by their ability to cut time from their personal best across distances and strokes, and the Blue Marlins squad hit this key milestone across the board: every single swimmer on the team hit a new personal best time over the course of the meet, a clear demonstration of both their athletic prowess and ongoing improvement.

    Following the conclusion of the meet, Blue Marlins head coach Tamarah St. Hilaire issued a statement congratulating the entire team on their unprecedented performance, and extended gratitude to the swimmers’ parents and families for their consistent support of the club and its athletes.

  • Barbados bids to host new global Borrowers’ Platform secretariat

    Barbados bids to host new global Borrowers’ Platform secretariat

    As developing nations rally to challenge a long-unbalanced global financial order they argue is systematically stacked against low-income and vulnerable economies, Barbados has formally thrown its name forward to host the secretariat of the landmark new Borrowers’ Platform. Prime Minister Mia Mottley made the announcement Wednesday during the annual Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C., where the initiative was officially launched on the conference’s sidelines.

    First agreed by member states at the 2025 Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, the Borrowers’ Platform was designed to tackle deep-rooted systemic inequities by strengthening coordination, amplifying collective representation, and delivering targeted technical support for borrowing countries across the Global South. The launch comes at a moment of soaring debt vulnerability across developing economies, with the initiative focused on advancing more responsible debt sustainability practices and pushing for fairer financing outcomes that serve the needs of low-income nations rather than wealthy global stakeholders.

    In her announcement, Mottley emphasized that Barbados’ lived experience with the harms of the existing global financial system makes it the ideal host for the platform’s administrative core. “We make formal our interest as Barbados to host the Secretariat of the Borrowers’ Platform because we have walked it, we have lived it, we are breathing it and we are prepared to continue to advocate for the change in rules and circumstances such that countries can find their way as independent sovereign nations to be able to finance development for their people,” she stated.

    Mottley framed the new platform as a make-or-break step toward correcting systemic failures that disproportionately disadvantage small and economically vulnerable states. She argued that the current global architecture is structured to favor powerful, wealthy nations, leaving low-income countries locked in a cycle of growing inequality: “We have ended up in this position largely because we have a system that does not favour the weak, nor the different. Without reform, global inequalities will continue to widen. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.”

    She also pushed back against the dominant global approach to sovereign borrowing, noting that countries facing debt distress are too often penalized rather than supported through structural challenges. “Countries need assistance. They are not begging. They need space. They need assistance,” she said, calling for a far more balanced, human-centered approach to international debt management.

    The platform is designed to deliver tangible benefits to participating nations: it will deepen South-South cooperation, boost global debt transparency, provide customized technical and advisory support to developing economies, and raise the collective voice of borrowing countries in high-stakes global financial governance discussions. Mottley stressed that the initiative must expand rapidly beyond its founding 28 member states and be backed by strong, principled leadership to deliver meaningful change. “I do believe that the chief executive officer ought to be appointed as soon as possible if we are going to see further progress,” she said, adding that the ideal leader would combine “credibility but conscience.”

    Warned that the confluence of overlapping global crises leaves no time for incremental action, Mottley noted “We are running against the clock.” The cumulative shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and escalating geopolitical tensions have already pushed many vulnerable economies to the brink of debt collapse, she explained. For Mottley and the participating developing nations, the platform represents more than a coordination body: it is an opportunity for Global South countries to take ownership of their own financial futures. “We have come not to ask for permission. We have come to execute in the interests of the people whom we have been elected to serve,” she said.